How were the quality of cricket bats in 80s different from the 90s?

[Khota]

@MechEng sweet spot maybe little bit bigger but cannot be whole lot. 

You have back ground in Mech E you should know bat weights only help so much. Bat velocity is the dominant factor. So increasing the bat weight does not mean the ball will go whole lot further. Bat velocity is more important.

[rkt.india]

Quote

 

The reality is that a modern-day cricket bat currently weighs no more than it has done at any time in history.

You don’t need to be an expert, then, to understand that the power must be coming from elsewhere.

Even so, we spoke to one to help debunk the myth.

 

Chris King is the personal bat-maker for both Alastair Cook – England’s all-time highest Test run scorer – and Alex Hales – who holds the record for England’s highest-ever individual ODI score – among many others.

 

So if there is one man who understands that there is far more to modern-day run-scoring than merely the size of the willow, it’s him.

 

“Everybody gets obsessed with the shape of the cricket bat, but the actual power comes from how well the piece of wood is pressed,” says King, who works for Gray-Nicolls, a manufacturer that have been honing their craft since the 19^th century and also provide the bats for names including Australia’s David Warner, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson and South Africa’s JP Duminy.

 

"But that is an area of bat-making that most people don't understand. They assume it's just the size. If it was that easy, it would be a lot easier to make a good cricket bat.

 

"I often joke with people on social media that it’s like saying a Ferrari is fast because it's red. It completely undermines what the engine is.”

 

Pressing technique – whereby the fibres of the wood are compressed together to firm up the blade in preparation for hitting a hard ball – has not changed much down the years, though bats are pressed slightly less nowadays.

 

Batsmen also now use tighter-grain wood, sourced from trees that have grown slowly in conducive conditions for up to 20 years. This means modern bat surfaces are harder and therefore closer to peak performance, immediately explosive but less durable.

 

But neither change in approach has had an impact on the weight or size of the bat.

One recent experiment conducted at the start of last year by former England captain Nasser Hussain and current England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow underlined the other, more influential, factors behind modern scoring power.

 

Using the same bat, both men attempted to hit six balls into the stands. Bairstow did so five times, whereas Hussain failed to clear the boundary rope once.

 

“I made both the bats they were using,” King says. “Nasser was using Bairstow’s second bat from the same pair, so I know they were the same.

 

“Nasser asked, ‘Why can’t I do it?’, and Jonny replied, ‘Because you’re hitting it wrong, your position is wrong, and you need to get in the gym!’

 

“There is a lot of belief that it must be the big bats, whereas actually it is a lot more to do with the professionalism of the sport. They play different shots now.”

 

https://blog.betway.com/cricket/why-size-doesnt-matter-when-it-comes-to-modern-cricket-bats/

[rkt.india]

Quote

 

The brutish size of modern-day bats is, undeniably, striking. That, as King explains, is down to the example set by influential figures.

 

“It tends to be driven by the top end of the game,” he says.

 

“All it takes is somebody like David Warner to be constantly getting it over the boundary while using a very obviously large cricket bat and everybody sees it as a shortcut to being successful.  

 

“That is also supported by commentators, because they are ex-cricketers from the ‘70s and ‘80s, who see these guys hitting boundaries all the time, hitting massive sixes, and the first thing you see is the fact that their bat is different to what you used to have.”

 

 

[Tattieboy]

1 hour ago, Khota said:

@Tattieboy is the real deal on this forum. Rest of us are wannabees.

A couple of guys know about this , they took time to speak . Others just accused me of being Pakistani or constantly press Troll vote, not mentioning any names of course but how to hell did he become an administrator 

[velu]

7 hours ago, Tattieboy said:

I was a semi professional cricketer in an associate country which allowed me to play with and against many many fantastic Test and first class cricketers . Just lucky to have done it . 

 

are you sugarcoating ball boy here ?

[Tattieboy]

3 minutes ago, velu said:

 

are you sugarcoating ball boy here ?

Hahaha the only sugar coating on here is those that pretend to know about cricket and can play better than Test Players 

 

 

[MechEng]

2 hours ago, Khota said:

@MechEng sweet spot maybe little bit bigger but cannot be whole lot. 

You have back ground in Mech E you should know bat weights only help so much. Bat velocity is the dominant factor. So increasing the bat weight does not mean the ball will go whole lot further. Bat velocity is more important.

Yes bat velocity is very important but you need to time the ball very well to hit sixes effectively for lighter bats or else it's a top edge. A good example of this would be Ponting's innings against us in 2003 World Cup. Excellent bat speed but few of his shots were top edges landing safely in no man's land, while others went for huge sixes.

 

Heavier bats may have a slight advantage over light bats when it comes to sweet spots, I won't get into physics of it but there must be a good reason why Tendulkar, Klusener and Sehwag use heavy bats. The toughest part about using heavy bats is that you need to have very strong forearms to swing it comfortably or else you will keep mistiming your shots.

[Khota]

10 hours ago, MechEng said:

Yes bat velocity is very important but you need to time the ball very well to hit sixes effectively for lighter bats or else it's a top edge. A good example of this would be Ponting's innings against us in 2003 World Cup. Excellent bat speed but few of his shots were top edges landing safely in no man's land, while others went for huge sixes.

 

Heavier bats may have a slight advantage over light bats when it comes to sweet spots, I won't get into physics of it but there must be a good reason why Tendulkar, Klusener and Sehwag use heavy bats. The toughest part about using heavy bats is that you need to have very strong forearms to swing it comfortably or else you will keep mistiming your shots.

Top edge irrespective of anything is not a correct shot.

 

Bat weight does give you advantage but velocity gives you more. Let me try my best to simplify and explain:

 

When bat hits the ball for the ball to travel further you need to impart kinetic energy to the ball.

 

Kinetic Energy of the bat = (1/2)* M*V^2 ;

 

M = Bat Mass

V = Bat Velocity

 

As you can see Mass is directly proportinal so increase in mass will increase the kinetic energy imparted.

But if you look at the velocity it is propotional to the square of velocity. So increase in velocity will yield more.

 

It comes down to every player trying different weight bats and see what is best for them.

 

My high school physics only goes this far. This is more complcated but for first order of approximations this is good enough.